"Massive Kilonova Unleashes Cosmic Gold Factory, Creating Unprecedented Amounts of Heavy Elements"

An international team of scientists has linked an unusually powerful gamma-ray burst (GRB 211211A) to a kilonova, an event thought to occur when neutron stars collide. The burst, detected from a nearby galaxy, exhibited excess infrared light and produced approximately 1,000 times the mass of the Earth in heavy elements. This discovery supports the idea that kilonovae are the main factories of gold in the universe. The findings have significant implications for future gravitational wave observations and provide insights into the behavior of gamma-ray bursts.